


Debts

by lightningwaltz



Category: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-29
Updated: 2012-12-29
Packaged: 2017-11-22 20:26:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/613980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningwaltz/pseuds/lightningwaltz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When did he disappear from his own life?</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Debts

After Aoi’s sister rushes out of the incinerator, he feels an overwhelming sense of joy. The first time he ever gets drunk it’ll feel much like this moment; relief surrounding him, nearly a tangible presence, practically making him float all the way to the lifeboat. Akane had hovered between life and death, like some expert gymnast, before eventually vaulting back to the realm of the living. For the time being Aoi can forget that he owes Death a debt.

*

Any joy he has soon calcifies into something harsh and brittle as they settle back into daily life. Akane was bound to grow up eventually, but sometimes when his sister looks at him he sees an old woman’s eyes in her child’s face. When she laughs, it’s as sweet, forceful, and cold as wind chimes in a blizzard.

As he keeps track of Akane’s changing moods, Aoi is pretty sure he knows why she can’t simply snap back into place. Akane survived. It’s true. She’ll get to see her thirteenth birthday, her thirteenth Christmas, and her next year in school. All the same, she should never have been on that ship in the first place. Akane never should have been treated as a cog in the machine for the advancement of science. She should be repatriated, instead of brushed aside the way one brushes away a mosquito.

_(Sometimes he thinks, yes, okay, I should have been left alone too. It’s an afterthought. A footnote, maybe. Important- in the sense that all knowledge is important- but one’s eye glances past it. When has did he disappear from his own life?)_

One day he comes home to find Akane sitting at their kitchen table, her legs folded to her chest. He panics, thinking she must have been crying, until he looks closer and panics even more. Her eyes are void of tears, but there is no mistaking the rage in her eyes.

“Akane…” He feels like he’s talking to a baby tiger whose mother is close by. “How are you?”

She looks up at him, and there’s that horrifying ancient look again. “Am I supposed to be grateful that I get to keep my own life? It’s mine. Should I be grateful to him?” Guilt and relief and fear all at once.

She starts to cry then, and Aoi’s almost relieved. He knows how to deal with _this_ kind of reaction.

He starts to reassure her that no, _no_ , she doesn’t owe Cradle shit. But then Akane speaks again, in a strained little voice, and Aoi learns just how little he knows about what went on in that incinerator. Who she really feels indebted towards.

“I believe you,” Aoi says, even though Akane’s story sounds like a child’s twisted fantasy. The Kurashikis have endured the disbelief of others for far to long. He will not subject her to more of it. “I believe you,” he repeats, his voice stronger.

Akane shakes a little. “Thank you,” she says, and she finally looks like a child.


End file.
